The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that our country’s 2.8 million commercial truck and bus drivers be banned from all cell phone use on the road.
The recommendation comes after investigators determined a trucker in Kentucky was using his phone immediately before he lost control of his vehicle in a crash that killed him and ten other people. Records indicate that the trucker had used his phone 69 times in the 24 hours before the crash occurred, and had made four calls in the minutes leading up to the crash.
Currently truck drivers are prohibited from texting and can face a fine up to $2,750 if they violate the rule.
While the NTSB doesn’t have legal jurisdiction, their recommendations often carry over into federal legislation.
The ban would include both handheld devices as well as hands-free devices, with emergencies being the exception.
As a collision attorney in North Texas, I hope that federal legislation will pass this into law, especially considering the cause of the 11-person fatality in Kentucky.
In my experience representing people like you who are injured by commercial vehicle drivers, I have seen distracted driving continually on the rise as a cause of accidents, have sued drivers and their companies for causing needless suffering, and I think it’s time that the law protects us from distracted drivers.
This ban is already in effect for operators of air plans and ships.
Note that the American Trucking Association, an industry lobbying group, supports such a ban on hand-held phones and texting.